Goodnight My Darling
by District 12 Tribute
Summary: What happens when you find the one you love, the one you've been waiting for your entire life? And what happens when it turns out that the one you love is a boy from the poorest part of district 12 - the seam?
1. Chapter 1

I look around our tiny cramped room, small bed, with coal dust in every single nook and cranny you could possibly imagine, and yet I can't find anything wrong with it. Except for the fact that my husband is already awake and is about to be finished dressing.

"I love you." I say to my husband with a yawn and a smile as he prepares to set off for his shift at the coal mine.

"I love you too." He says back with a smile. He finishes getting dressed in his coal miner's uniform and kisses me softly on the lips, then leaves our little house in the seam. The one we have been living in for the past sixteen years and with two children. I sleepily begin to plan my day. Take the children to school, stop by the bakery on my way home to see Jenna Mellark, the baker's wife about some bread for supper, stop by the water pump for water so I can clean that god-awful coal dust off everything, and prepare supper before he gets home. My husband. I smile happily to myself as I remember out wedding day.

It was a simple wedding really, as most weddings in District Twelve go. When a woman gets married in District Twelve, she usually rents a white dress worn hundreds of times by hundreds of different women. I couldn't go to Mrs. Jackson the tailor for a dress, she was the biggest gossip in town, and the news would no doubt reach my parents. They would attempt to forbid me again from seeing this boy from the seam. I smile as I think of how that ever worked.

I wore a soft blue dress with matching shoes, and he a well-worn suit handed down to him through generations of family. Neither of our families would approve of our marriage, so we hadn't told anyone. I couldn't very well tell my parents I was getting married, much less to a boy from the seam. He met me just inside the line of trees in our backyard, kissed me softly, took my hand, and off we went. We didn't have to be secretive about our relationship anymore, so we walked the fastest route to the justice building, which was also the most populated. We got quite a few stares along the way, and I could understand why. A slender blond-haired blue eyed girl from town who had always had enough to eat, wearing nice clothes holding the hand of a boy with dark hair, grey eyes, and olive skin wearing a suit, headed for the Justice Building. One could only guess what we were headed there to do. It was odd enough for two people from town and the seam to associate with one another, let alone get married. But I didn't care. I loved him so much it hurt to think about what might've not happened.

As we reached the front steps, he took both of my hand in his, leaned over so that his lips were lightly brushing my ear, and sweetly whispered to me

"I love you." I smiled back, too happy for words at this moment.

We walked in the building, hand in hand, and got even more stares and uncomfortable glances our way. I sat down at a table as he walked up to the reception desk to get the forms and a pen. I gazed at him happily and lovingly. We were finally about to become husband and wife. I could barely contain a squeal of delight as i watched him walk back from the reception desk with our papers.

After the paperwork was all filled out, we signed our names at the bottom of page which indicated we were now husband and wife. I remember there was a warning printed in bold red ink warning us that after we both signed our names, we would be legally married to each other. I smiled to myself as I signed my name, not giving the warning a second thought.

We signed our names, walked up to the reception desk, and handed in our finished paperwork. We were presented with a key to our new assigned home. It was quite a distance from his old home, and we had a lot of personal items to bring, so we had to get right to work.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

We had to leave a few things we couldn't carry like the TV, which was fixated into the wall, and the large bed. Other than that, we brought our bed sheets, an old shaving mirror, and a few knickknacks to place around the house. He presented me with a beautiful bouquet of evening Primroses just before we crossed the threshold into our new home. I smiled at him, letting my eyes do all the talking because I was pretty sure that I wouldn't be able to speak at that moment anyways. He swept me up into his arms, and kissed me as we crossed the threshold. We broke away only so that we could finish unloading our things, and then begin our toasting.

There is this marriage ritual in District Twelve where the husband and wife, once they have moved into their new home, toast a piece of bread and eat it together. Sometimes, if families could afford it, they would buy perhaps a little packet of grain and sprinkle it over the newlyweds as they crossed the threshold of their new home together. If the family really had enough money, they would spring for a bit of cake. We had no family with us on this day, so that was unfortunately out of the question. And we didn't see the point in wasting good grain by sprinkling it on the floor, so that was out too. Besides those facts, neither of us would feel officially married until we had completed this task.

Once we had finally finished settling all of our things into our new home, we sat down to begin our toasting.

"I'll go get the bread" I offered.

He agreed, and went to go turn the oven on, since we no longer would be able to afford a toaster. It felt better, more tradition anyway to do it the seam way, since I was technically one of them now. I slightly chuckle to myself as I got out the bread I bought from the Mellark's bakery on our way home. We decided on regular, cheap, tough bread, the only type the people from the seam would buy. We didn't want to extravagant and buy expensive bread when we might need the money later in life. Plus, buying expensive bread really means only one thing in District Twelve. Either you are very rich and can afford to buy the bread on a daily basis, or you are buying it for a special occasion, i.e. getting married. We didn't want to raise suspicion either, so buying the expensive bread would have set off alarm bells in the Mellark's head as we bought the bread together. The news would no doubt reach our families, and we couldn't risk that.

I sigh, and grab the loaf of bread from the counter, and bring it over to where he has sat down in front of the oven.

"It's ready" he says with a wide smile. "The oven is perfectly warm. We can start our toasting." I hand over the loaf of bread, and he immediately rips off a piece, puts in on the oven rack, and waits. A few minutes later, the toast is ready. He gingerly pulls it out of the oven with careful fingers, and holds it out to me. I bite into it.

"It's perfect." I say. "It's just absolutely, wonderfully perfect." He gives me a smile that makes my heart melt and hands the loaf back over to me.

I take off a piece of bread and let it sit in the oven. I must have waited too long to take the bread out, because it's slightly burnt on the crusts, and i can smell a burning scent emanating from it.

"Oh no." I say, my voice dripping heavily with despair. "I've burnt the toast. Now our toasting is ruined." I put my face in my hands and begin to cry softly.

"No no no its fine love, really." He says and he pulls me in for a hug. I immediately relax; his body is so warm and comforting that I just can't help it. He hands me back my burnt piece of toast, and i gingerly put it onto his tongue. He bites off a piece, chews it, and smiles.

"Love, I don't know why you got so upset" he says to me in a teasing voice. "That was the most delicious piece of wedding toast I have ever had, and ever will have. You are my wife, my love, and I will love you forever no matter what obstacles life may throw our way. Until the end of time, my love." He smiles down at me. I start to cry softly, not out of sadness but out of joy. Utter and complete joy. That is what I am feeling. I smile in return, and kiss him, my kiss thanking him for all the thoughts and emotions I couldn't possibly put into words.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

As we rest on the old couch brought over from his old home, i remember with an unfortunate thought that tomorrow was Monday. He has to go back to work in the coal mines. I dreaded the thought, because we had just gotten married, and now I wouldn't be able to see him for twelve hours a day. That thought alone was enough to make me sad, but i attempted to smile through it all. Being free to be with him was better than having to hide our relationship.

Just as I was thinking these happy and sad thoughts, he leaned over, smiled, stared his gorgeous grey eyes deep into mine and said in a smiling tone

"Hey, guess what?"

"What?" I asked him back, laughing to myself at his tone of voice.

"I love you" He said with a smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. I laughed, put his face in my hands, kissed him and said

"You better, we just got married. I wouldn't want to have just married a man that didn't love me." This time it was his turn to laugh.

"Oh my love" he started to say. "I couldn't ever not love you. You are the most important thing in my life, and i love you more than i need the air around us to breathe." I smiled up at him, my head swirling with thoughts of love. That was the most romantic, sweet, and loving thing anyone has ever said to me.

"Good." I said with a hint of a laugh, the corners of my mouth starting to pull up. "Then will you please love me? For real?" He obliged, took my hand in his, and led me towards our bedroom.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

We lay there after a while, my head resting on his bare chest, his arms wrapped sturdily around me. This is the happiest I've been in a long time. Longer than I can remember actually. I shift my body slightly so that I'm facing away from him now with the left side of my head against the pillow. My right arm was falling asleep, it was getting quite uncomfortable. He grumbles

"No... back" In his sleep, and I can't help it but smile. He reaches his arms out, and they clasp back around me and he pulls me back closer to him.

"Fine" I mutter grudgingly under my breath. I shift my body out from his semi - cloying grasp, and move myself back onto his chest, the position I was in previously.

"Mm... much better." He mumbles sleepily. I smack him lightly on the arm, laughing softly.

"Hey now." He mumbles again. I just laugh lightly again, which causes a deep rumble to start in his chest.

"What are you laughing at?" He asks me teasingly, gripping my even tighter.

"Oh, nothing." I say coyly, a smile on my face. I give a yawn, feeling my eyelids start to droop.

"That's not nothing." He says to me, again. He too yawns.

"I don't really know to be honest." I say truthfully. "It's just..."

"It's just... what?" He asks me with fervor.

"I was just thinking of how incredibly amazing this day was. And then to spend it with you..." I feel the red heat rise to my cheeks, glad that it's dark enough that he won't be able to see my blush. "I'm just so happy that I've finally become your wife. I hope I'm everything you deserve."

"Oh, love." He says with passion. "I love you with every fibre of my being. And while I may never deserve you, I will always love you, no matter what."

"You don't deserve me?" I ask with incredulity. "I'm the one who doesn't deserve you." I say with sorrow creeping into my voice. I start to say another sentence, but he cuts me off with a kiss to my lips. It's so sudden and unexpected that I completely forget my argument.

"Now, what was it you were saying?" He asks, mocking in his voice. He knows what he's doing. Trying to distract me.

"I was saying that I don't deserve you." I say finally.

"Well I don't deserve you either." He says. I start to say something more, but he presses a finger to my lips.

"So, since we both agree on that we both don't deserve each other" He starts. "How about we agree to accept that were stuck with each other, and just love each other?" He asks teasingly.

"Oh all right." I agree happily. I really was worried there for a moment, but this is an easy compromise that I am more than willing to make.

"So, is that all?" He asks, a teasing tone creeping back into his voice, obviously pleased with himself on quickly he ended that little argument.

"Pretty much." I answer back, just as teasingly. "Oh, and I love you." I say nonchalantly.

"I love you too." He replies. "Never forget that.

"I won't." I reply sleepily back, feeling my eyelids droop more and more.

"Good." He says. "Goodnight my darling. I love you."

And with that, i drift back off into a sea of unconsciousness.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

As soon as I hear the mining accident siren wail, I'm jolted out of my happy thoughts and my heart stops. After the inclination of the alarm sets in, I immediately drop the groosling I was gutting for dinner onto the dust-covered counter and hurriedly grab my coat. I completely forgetting about shoes or gloves, and run along with other families from the seam, who are wearing just about as much clothing as I am. A coat here and there, a few people with mismatched shoes, and a pair of gloves or two. We're frantic in our running to reach our husbands, sons, and brothers. I run from our house in the seam, tripping and falling in the uneven ground, cursing myself for forgetting shoes in my frantic haste of getting to the mine, only thinking that I must reach him. To see if he's safe. He must be safe.

I reach the mine, and I see that peacekeepers have roped off the entire entrance. I absently rub my hands, wishing that I could afford a pair of gloves as my hands are freezing, almost numb now from the cold. Families are streaming in at a rapid rate. I take in a chilly breath as my mind finally formulates the conclusion that this was my husband's mine that was affected.

A crowd has gathered in front. I push my way through them, stumbling, desperate to reach him, my husband, my confidant, my lover. I accidently bump into some, earning me some choice words, while one man glowers at me, clutching his elbow. But I don't care. All I see is his face, yearning at me to reach him. Just a little farther.

I reach the rope, clutch it, and look eagerly into the entrance to the mine. A peacekeeper stands behind the rope, and tells me that I must stay back, and that I can't get past this rope. I clutch the rope in front of me in despair perhaps to steady myself as I feel like I am about to keel over, when suddenly I glance up and see, or rather hear an elevator making its way back to the surface. It's carrying rescued miners from that underground pit of terror and hell. I lean forward eagerly, and look at the faces of the miners, trying to catch their eyes, but not recognizing any of them. They all look the same with a thick layer of coal dust covering their skin. None of them respond to me, and rush into the crowd to be engulfed by eagerly awaiting, laughing, crying, sobbing family members. I look at them enviously, hatred boiling through my veins and hot tears threatening to spill out at any moment.

"_He'll be on the next one."_ I think, attempting to calm down and turn back to entrance to the mine. "_He will come back to me and to our children." _"Mother?" a small, frightened voice asks me tentatively, shocking me out of my own self-absorbed thoughts. Katniss. My stomach tightens as I look at her. She looks so much like her father, with her dark hair and grey eyes that mark her as one from the seam.

"What's going on?" Another asks. This time it's Primrose. She clutches Katniss' hand in fear, blond head tiled upwards, staring up at me with her wide, frightened blue eyes. My eyes.

I slowly let my gaze travel from the entrance to the mine, down to my daughters, looking at me earnestly, fear and terror evident on their young, innocent faces. What's going on? I honestly have no idea what's going on, but before I can formulate a decent response to my waiting children, I blurt out "I don't know." My voice slightly cracking.

The afternoon wears on, and as time passes, none of the elevators bring up my husband. Before, the elevators would bring miners up, unload them, shoot back down, and then shoot right back up again, filled to the brim, men squished and pushed against each other in the small space. I shiver slightly, thinking myself a fool for the second time today for not bringing shoes, or a hat. I look over to my children, and see they're being wracked with violent shivers. I take off my coat, shivering slightly as its welcome warmth slides off my body and place around my children. They let out a sigh as the coat covers them, and Prim ever so slightly leans against Katniss' shoulder and starts to nod off.

Afternoon turns into evening, and he still has not made an appearance. An elevator finally comes creaking up out of the earth, after more than forty minutes underground, with just a meagre two passengers aboard. Somehow, I know that this is the last elevator. There are not many of us left here, waiting, wishing, and wondering. Just us, the Hawthornes, and at least several other families that I do not recognize.

The director of the coal mine approaches us from the other side of the rope, covered in coal dust. My heart is clenching, hardening, trying to cushion the blow of what I ultimately know is coming. He gathers all us families that are left together and finally lets us know what I know we've all been dreading.

"I'm terribly sorry"

Oh dear god, please no. Not in front of my children. I move to cover Katniss' ears, since Primrose is sleeping beside me on her lap. She moves my hands away, and looks up at the director's face, her eyes searching for any sort of positive statement hidden there. I know with a heavy heart that she will find none.

"There were no more survivors that we were able to locate. It seems as though the entire rest of the team was completely blown up."

My eyes start to water, and then I focus again on the rest of what he is saying.

"There will be no bodies for you to bury."

"_No"._ I think silently to myself as I clutch the rope that's holding me back. I start to sob uncontrollably, and I hear screams of sadness mixed in and realize that that god-awful sound is coming from me. Tears are leaving my eyes at such a rapid pace I feel as though I'm being dunked in a sea of ice and salt. My tears. "_No. no no no... no. Just no. He can't be gone. He… he just can't. He can't possibly have left me here, alone, with no-one to comfort me"_ I think between sobs and screams. My poor, poverty-ridden body becomes wracked with violent sobs, and I sink to the ground, not caring if I get trampled or trod on. Katniss picks me up off the ground, sighing, her eyes brimming with tears. They lead me home, Katniss and Primrose, un-tuck my bed sheets, and shove me back under the quilts, clothes and all.

I am consumed in my grief, sobbing for days on end, waking only to see the sad face of my daughter Primrose attempting to rouse me out of my deep and utter depression. I mumble something in reply, and with a heavy heart roll onto my other side and attempt to fall asleep again. I try again to slip deeper and deeper into unconsciousness. I hear once sentence that sends a stab of pain running through my chest when I hear it, as is whispered to me between the bed sheets, our bed sheets.

"Goodnight my darling. I love you."


End file.
